Night's Symphony
by asummonedmuse
Summary: You can only run from your past for so long before it invades your present. This is a lesson Lilith Nightsong will have to learn the hard way but at least she won't be alone. An HOTU fanfic. pcXvalen.
1. Prelude: Into The Depts

_**Now I want the water to wash away all my sins.**_

_**The wind to blow away my thoughts without meaning.**_

_**The fire to burn away my thickened skin. **_

_**- Dance Of Fate -** _

"Intruders!" It was a greeting she'd heard one to many times. Before her eyes could adjust to the sudden darkness she heard the metcallic _'zing!' _of several swords being unsheathed and once her eye did finally adjust the swords were at her throat. She exhaled in frustration and her mussel's tensed as she snaked her hand slowly to her waist and the hilt of her bastard sword.  
"Stop! Do you not recognize one of our own?" A drow woman stepped out of the shadows. She was unlike any of the soldiers surrounding Lilith now, her eyes held deep compassion and otherworldly wisdom. "Nathyrra, you have returned to us."  
"Yes, Seer! It is good to see you once more." Nathyrra smiled for the first time since Lilith had encountered her in the shadows of UnderMountain.  
"And you aswell but I see you have returned with another. Someone very important indeed..."  
The Seer's eyes rested on Lilith. "I did not expect to lay my eyes on you so soon. I am curious as to how you both came to appear before us."

And then the explanations of all that transpired in UnderMountain began...

--

He let out a low groan of irritation as he looked over their _saviour. _She was tall, for a woman, and she appeared to be well equipped enough to handle herself on the battle feild but she didnt look like a hero. As far as he was concerned she didn't look any more special than the average adventurer. She wore black leathers, convenient for the road ahead, he mused. Her favoured weapon appeared to be the sword at her hip though he'd noticed at least two concealed daggers on her person. Her skin was pale, much paler than any human he'd ever come across and she had long unpractical dark crimson hair that she held back in a tight braid. What gave away her inhuman heritage however was not her skin or strange coloring, it was her eyes. They were pale green that almost seemed to have a glow about them.

"I must put my faith in the Goddess and that meaning putting my faith in you -- our lives are in your hands."  
Alright, enough is enough. "You cannot be serious?" He stepped forward. "What do we really know about this... this woman? She could be the death of us all!"  
The Seer merely shook her head and offered him a reassuring look. "Perhaps then, Valen, you would like to accompany Lilith on her quest. Would this put your mind at rest?"  
Lilith, that was her name. He scowled. "You know I don't believe in your ways and I won't throw my life away blinding following anyone."  
Lilith turned to him, looking him up and down quickly before locking glazes with him. "And I would not ask you too. You have no reason to trust me but you could at least trust the geas." She held up her hands in a mock gesture of surrender. "I'm bound to this."  
He closed his eyes in consideration. Go with her and assure she stays true to their cause or stay here and wonder if she is really conspiring against them all. He let out a sigh of defeat. "I will do what I can to assist you..." He paused. "But know that I will be watching you as well."  
She smiled. "And Nathyrra, you'll accompany me also?"  
The drow's eyes lit up. "Of course."

**Authors Note: **Certain aspects of the PC will not be considered cannon but for the sake of a good story, lets pretend it is.  
But that's all for now, updates will probably be weekly or atleast close to that. Chapters will start getting longer soon, promise.


	2. Chapter 1: Life is Often Miserable

**I am looking without vision for a different kind of way**

**I am thinking just for nothing about that specific day**

**You're the night so you're the dark side of the day you'll never see**

**You're the past but everlasting**

**Can you share one day with me?**

**- Mother of Light -**

--

Lilith relaxed as she pulled the bow across the strings on her beloved fiddle. _Still in tune_.

She grinned wickedly and looked over to Deekin who was huddled in the corner of their temporary resting place reviewing his notes.

"Want to come with me to the market?"

He looked from her to her fiddle and then back to her. "You mean we out of gold again?"

"No, no, no! I just... I just want to play." She paused. "Are you saying you don't want to play with me anymore? Ah, well I am sure I can find someone who will."

His small beady eyes grew wide with panic. "No! I mean yes, I do want to play but no I... uhh..."

She shook her head. "Alright come along."

--

The sound of light footfalls floated down the hallway of the temple, the first sign it was not a drow. The footfalls grew closer then paused, a crash sounded as something fell to the polished black floors, now came melodic laughter and hushed words, the second and third signs it was not a drow.

Lilith walked briskly through the main room of the temple with her kobold pet at her heels and through the large black double doors leading out into Lith My'athar.

Valen groaned in irritation and looked to his left at Nathyrra who shrugged. "You're not worried that she is going to-"

"Going to what? Start a fight, break something, get lost or just do something highly unorthodox? Oh, I know she will but it's how she'll handle it that counts don't you think?"

"No I don't." With that Valen stomped out of the temple after her.

"Men!" Nathyrra hissed and hurried out after him.

--

Lilith looked down to Deekin. "You know, I always thought drow cities would be much harder to find your way around, all complex and mysterious."

"Why Boss? Human cities be much worse."

"…How was I to know?"

"Me figured you just know."

Lilith sighed and looked around the drow market place. There were several stands which stood seemingly abandoned and a scant few with what appeared to be decent stock. The stand that stood out the most however was owned by a very snooty looking wizard. "Don't think we should play by him, huh?"

Before hearing Deekin's reply Lilith had planted herself in front of one of the empty merchant stands and pulled out her fiddle.

--

Valen looked around the training grounds with irritation. "Where in the hells did they get to?"

Nathyrra inspected her nails leaning against a beaten up combat dummy. "Well, they are adventures fresh out of Undermountain so I'd assume somewhere to restock their supplies, ya think?"

"Why didn't you mention that before?"

"It's rather obvious isn't it? I assumed as a soldiered you'd do you same and would figure out that is what they are doing and then when you didn't I decided I'd just wait and see how long it took you to find them but then I got bored and told you."

Valen gritted his teeth and hastily began toward the market only pausing as a soft alien tune floated softly through the cavern. _Music? No, it couldn't be…_

--

Lilith smiled as the drow walking by paused listening to the tune. _Suppose there are not that many bards in the Underdark._

Taking in a deep breath she began to sing.

_The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,_

_The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,_

_The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,_

_And the highwayman came riding--_

_Riding--riding--_

_The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door._

--

By the time Valen had reached the market Lilith had already played through a portion of her song and like many of the nearby drow he stopped to listen, yelling could wait it'd been a long time since he'd heard music aside from the songs of the followers of Eilistraee of course.

--

_Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard,_

_He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred;_

_He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there_

_But the landlord's black-eyed daughter,_

_Bess, the landlord's daughter,_

_Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair._

_And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked_

_Where Tim the ostler listened; his face was white and peaked;_

_His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like moldy hay,_

_But he loved the landlord's daughter,_

_The landlord's red-lipped daughter,_

_Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say--_

_"One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize tonight,_

_But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;_

_Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,_

_Then look for me by moonlight,_

_Watch for me by moonlight,_

_I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way."_

_He rose upright in the stirrups; he scarce could reach her hand,_

_But she loosened her hair in the casement. His face burnt like a brand_

_As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;_

_And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,_

_Oh, sweet black waves in the moonlight!_

_Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the West._

--

Lilith closed her eyes as she pulled the bow across the strings of her fiddle. She hadn't played this song since Hilltop and with the emotions that began to rise in her belly she was beginning to remember why. Sorrow, longing, loss – there were many nights these emotions haunted her and she suspected this would be one of them. _What a wasted effort._

--

_They said no word to the landlord, they drank his ale instead,_

_But they gagged his daughter and bound her to the foot of her narrow bed;_

_Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side._

_There was death at every window;_

_And hell at one dark window;_

_For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride._

_They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest._

_They had bound a musket beside her, with the barrel beneath her breast._

_"Now keep good watch!" and they kissed her. She heard the doomed man say--_

_Look for me by moonlight;_

_Watch for me by moonlight;_

_I'll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!_

_She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good._

_She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood._

_They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,_

_Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,_

_Cold, on the stroke of midnight,_

_The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!_

_The tip of one finger touched it. She strove no more for the rest._

_Up, she stood up to attention, with the muzzle beneath her breast._

_She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;_

_For the road lay bare in the moonlight;_

_Blank and bare in the moonlight;_

_And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love's refrain._

_Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;_

_Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?_

_Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,_

_The highwayman came riding,_

_Riding, riding!_

_The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!_

_Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! __Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!_

_Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!_

_Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,_

_Then her finger moved in the moonlight,_

_Her musket shattered the moonlight,_

_Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him--with her death._

_He turned; he spurred to the west; he did not know who stood_

_Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood._

_Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew gray to hear_

_How Bess, the landlord's daughter,_

_The landlord's black-eyed daughter,_

_Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there._

_Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting a curse to the sky,_

_With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!_

_Blood-red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,_

_When they shot him down on the highway,_

_Down like a dog on the highway,_

_And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat._

_--  
_

**Authors Note: **For those of you who know the poem/song the missing paragraphs were removed because there is no King George in the Forgotten Realms and to mark the passing of time. I know the song takes up a good portion of the chapter and thus making it considerably short, the chapters will get more detailed and longer as the story goes on but the song is important to the characters past and I felt it deserved a place of honor because of the role it is going to play.

The song is by _Loreena McKennitt_ and the lyrics _Alfred Noyes_.

Listen to the song! ;D


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